


Hope is a Kind of Madness

by Ailelie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Hat Trick, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:56:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/pseuds/Ailelie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Before the Red Queen’s reign, Wonderland was still a terrible place where no rules applied and casual cruelties abounded. No certainty in Wonderland—which made it an all-too-easy portal for some of the stranger realms. Doors once lost could still be found within its unreality." --the shortly-told tale of how Jefferson lost his wife and daughter to Wonderland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope is a Kind of Madness

Before the Red Queen’s reign, Wonderland was still a terrible place where no rules applied and casual cruelties abounded. No certainty in Wonderland—which made it an all-too-easy portal for some of the stranger realms. Doors once lost could still be found within its unreality.

Alice of the land with no magic falls by accident into Wonderland when the Red Queen yet remains on her chess board and no monarch reigns over all. Jefferson and his wife find her. She reminds them of Grace, of the girl Grace might one day grow up to be. Poor thing should not be lost. Her parents should not be forced to grieve. But only two may leave, and his wife cannot use the hat.

Jefferson restores Alice to her world and cautions her to never tumble through the mirror again. Without the hat imposing sense on time in Wonderland, the years and seconds bend and stretch. When Jefferson returns, _immediately_ returns, his wife is gone.

A chess game took place, he learns. The White Queen was winning. The Red Queen was shattered. But then a brave pawn reached all the way across the board and destroyed the game. No one would play chess in Wonderland ever again, and the Red Queen reigned. In the chaos of the aftermath, his wife had been lost. At least, none of Wonderland's varied denizens can tell him where she might be found. He searches and would have searched more, but Grace is waiting for him.

He accepts his wife is lost. The hat goes into a box. Grace grows up. His heart aches daily for his wife, for all the little miracles their girl accomplishes that she will never see.

Years later, after being lost to Wonderland, torn from Grace and alone in the world that had destroyed his wife—

Years later, with a line on his throat and a workroom quarter-full with worthless hats—

Years later, he sees beneath the Red Queen’s veil and finds his wife, alive after all this time.

His hat becomes even more critical then. A hat to find his way back home, to save his wife and reclaim his child. A hat to finally save the day, rather than destroy it. None of them work, but hope is a kind of madness. One day he’ll find the way, the trick of it. He’ll spin his hat, grab the Queen, and bring them both home, safe and in time for tea with Grace.

He’ll get the right of it one of these days.

**Author's Note:**

> This started life as a plot bunny I was describing for someone else to pick up. When I finished, I realized I had a ficlet. Plot bunny, though, is still free for the taking.


End file.
